Wednesday, 3 April 2013

Devour! Harvest! FEED!

My apologies for the longer than usual break between posts. I've been away with work for the last couple of weeks and have been chomping at the bit to get on with my Tyranid swarm the whole time. Another case of real life getting in the way I'm afraid. I have however managed to add an integral part to the old devourer and that is a swarm of Rippers!

Here they are...

As you can see the colour scheme is exactly the same as the scheme I started with the hormagaunts. I want to keep the entire swarm looking very uniform and add points of interest with the bigger monsters. I have to admit, I'm still in the process of gearing myself up to tackle some of the bigger ones....intimidating much?!

I managed to get 24 of the little beasties off of eBay for a measly £7. I realise you get them free on most of the Tyranid sprues but I figure I'll use those as decoration for the bases on the bigger beasts.

I split them up so that there are 3 rippers on each base. I chose 3 for a few reasons; Firstly I wanted as many bases as I could scramble together. In gaming terms 8 of these thing s are super cheap and could really bog a unit down for a decent length of time. Secondly the bases have 3 wounds. 3 wounds = 3 rippers in my book ;). And lastly the extra space I gained allowed me to build slightly more scenic bases...

I wanted the bases on these guys to look quite swamp like. It's actually really tough to see in the pics but the lowest regions of the base are coated in a gloss varnish that pools in the recesses which makes the rocks look like they are rising out of a swamp! I've also added little bits of tank pieces, marine helmets, shoulder pads etc to break up the brown a little.

Here are some pics of the swarm as it stands...

I've got some Genestealers arriving today (again from eBay, again stupidly cheap) so I should have those done by the end of the week with any luck. I plan on doing them a little lighter in tone, I'm not sure yet...

So what do you think of the rippers? I know they aren't an incredibly interesting little unit but in the fluff surrounding tyranids the little blighters are essential!

12 comments:

Loving the work you've done. That colour scheme is going to look epic on a trygon or other suitably massive gribbly. I don't want to ruin the surprise, but what beasties have you got coming?.. Nah don't tell me..

Well that would be telling now wouldn't it?! (Don't tell anyone but I'm literally pretty much making it up as I go along, no plan, nothing. Just whatever's cheap on eBay!! ;P) Got some more stuff on the way. Lets just say I'm slowly building up to the massively intimidating bigger beasts. As it stands, I'm still a little scared of them...... :-/

Hehe, I like your approach. Some of those models are massive. If you're not power gaming with them (which I've never really understood) you can get any that look cool. I'll let you know if anything comes up at my local club, there often seems to be 'Nids going very cheap. Someone bought half an army for a tenner a month or so back.

The paiting and modelling is pretty much keeping me in the hobby. Gaming is fun, but I've only really found a couple of people who don't take it tremendously seriously. You can tell when someone really enjoys the painting first.

...Also sorry to hear you live in Newcastle, lol. I'm in Yorkshire, but not that far north!

Mate, if yours is sub standard then mine is non existent! I haven't played since I was a kid! Do you reckon we could organise it then? collaboration and all that? Send me your e mail due and we can bounce some ideas of each other. I reckon a full discussion about it on my comments page may get a little long!

Haha, true. I've had a look and can't see any way to email you from blogger. I'm not putting my email up for bots to snatch so I'll look at some way of getting it to you. I reckon it's possible to get some together though.

About Me

A 27 year old man trying to find time to paint and model amidst adult life. Hopefully cataloguing what I actually manage to get painted will inspire me to try bigger and better things! Including finally having the courage to paint the Forge World Space Marine I've had for years before my girlfriend kills me!!